PREVIEW: TARANTINO VS COEN BROS. Art Show @ Bold Hype GALLERY [NYC]

I don’t think that it’s been even a year since Hi-Fructose writer/web editor, Ken Harman introduced Spoke Art to the world, but his brainchild instantly began creating some sizable waves. In fact, the ripples have actually managed to wobble the ship here at Monster Fresh and splash a bit of water onto our metaphorical decks. Like much of the world, we were first introduced to the “transient art gallery and publishing house” through the exhibit “Bad Dads – a tribute to Wes Anderson”. Those of you who read our preview of the event and the subsequent offshoot and related posts might be wondering, “What’s with all of the art coverage? I thought this was a music site!” The answer to that question is, “Not really.” It’s true that, over time, the lopsided majority of content has often become music related, but we’ve often posted about the contemporary art world in the past and the original intent has always been for us to tangentially wander like a somnambulistic moth towards anything that we find interesting and “post worthy” (some of our first content even dealt with purchasing nuclear missile silos, for chrissakes!). Spoke Arts‘ latest undertaking, “Quentin vs. Coen – An art show tribute to the films of Tarantino and the Brothers” more than falls into those categories and, with contributions from over 100 different artists, this first run of preview images [featured below] will, more than likely, only be marking the beginning of our coverage for this project.

Up until now, the San Francisco-based gallery/publishing house hasn’t done much to live up to it’s description as “transient”; presenting shows isolated to and often focused on it’s greater Bay Area community. For “Quentin VS Coen“, however, Harman is making big moves and presenting his latest curatorial work on the opposite side of the country at the Bold Hype Gallery in New York City. The concepts of group or even pop-culture-themed exhibits aren’t anything too revolutionary. In fact, they seem to becoming more and more of a regularity. It’s true that the idea to create an ongoing series of “versus” exhibits does put a slight spin on things, but Spoke Art‘s appeal has nothing to do with reinventing the wheel. What they ARE doing, on the other hand, is utilizing top-of-the-line components to create some of the most hardcore, mind blowing, and versatile, multi-terrain wheels out there. We’re talking about retractable wildcat claws popping out of spiked off-road tires for scaling crags type shit.

The impressive amount of potential behind this show doesn’t simply stem from it’s top-notch theme or even it’s sheer number of contributors, but rather the variety and quality of those providing the pieces. The best part of any group/themed show is witnessing the various interpretations of the artists and this show features a solid array of talent that have been brought in from the worlds of painting, digital art, and screenprinting. If the style in the show flyer [see header image] looks familiar, that’s because it is the work of Greg Gossel, who created the mixed media piece, “ZISSOU” for the Bad Dads show. Besides Gossel, there are a number of other works from fellow Bad Dads contributors, including another amazing acrylic piece from our recent interviewee Serge Gay Jr. [included below]. Sifting through the list of confirmed artists presents one terrific surprise after another, as well as a number of familiar names that we’ve written about and covered in the past. Some such artists include, Munk One (“INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS: The Lost Art of the Film“), Charlie Immer “(Lush Life 2“, “Idiot Box“), Gregg “Gigart” Gordon (“Amazing WEEN So-Cal Screenprints“), and Todd Slater (“Is This Thing On?“).

Spoke Art recently shot us an email with the first run of images available. Please peep out the following details and the aforementioned images below them. Make sure to check back for more, as we intend to update the site with further “preview” posts as more images become available.

The following info come via the official press release:

“Spoke Art is proud to present: “Quentin vs. Coen – An art show tribute to the films of Tarantino and the Brothers”, a followup to last yearʼs highly successful “Bad Dads – a tribute to Wes Anderson.” For “Quentin vs. Coen”, Spoke Art has arranged a battle-royal style art show featuring over 100 world class artists from the new contemporary art scene. Painters, screen printers and digital artists were invited to reinterpret their favorite scenes, characters and films from the heralded directors, resulting in an eclectic showing of inspirational fine art.

The first installment of our “versus” series, “Quentin vs Coen” looks to expand on the concept of a pop-culture themed art show by pitting together two directors who share overlapping or similar stylistic themes, and allowing the viewer to decide their favorites. Though there are many distinct differences between the bodies of work created by both Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, their crafting of generation-defining soundtracks, the penchant for ubiquitous violence, their casting of the same actors (notably Steve Buscemi), and their ability to constantly create spectacular works of varying genres (everything from Kung-Fu to crime dramas to westerns), have cemented both Quentin and the Coens as some of the most important directors of our generation. For our upcoming show, Spoke Art has recruited an extensive network of renowned and emerging artists in a spontaneous and free for all art exhibit. No restrictions were placed on content or subject matter, allowing each artist to chose their personal favorite scenes, films and characters. With over 100 artists, “Quentin vs. Coen” offers a broad range of affordable prints and also fine art works.

The show opens on Thursday, April 7th at Bold Hype Gallery in New York City and will be on view until Saturday, April 9th. We will be celebrating our opening night with a costume contest and complimentary “Caucasian” cocktails (White Russians).“

Located in Seattle, Dead C is the founder/editor, as well as the principal writer and photographer, of Monster Fresh. Creating the site in 2007, he did so with a specific dream in mind. Unfortunately, being a muscle relaxer-fueled fever dream, it's hard to recall all of the details.
"I remember that my mom was there, but it wasn't actually her in the dream, it was actually 70s heart throb, Jan Michael Vincent. And everything took place here, in this room... but it wasn't actually here... it was different. The colors were washed out and, for some reason, there was a raccoon kicking it with us and it was wearing a holographic monocle."